


And Then, After the Storm has Passed

by AyuOhseki



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Post-Undertale Neutral Route - Near Genocide Ending, Spoilers - Undertale Neutral Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 02:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16358690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyuOhseki/pseuds/AyuOhseki
Summary: In the wake of the death and destruction the human has caused, much like the passage of a hurricane, Alphys looks over the kingdom that has somehow become her responsibility. As Sans listens, she attempts to work out her hopes and regrets, forgotten and remembered, about it all--and all everyone, especially she, has lost.





	And Then, After the Storm has Passed

Alphys stood on a balcony in New Home to survey what remained of the kingdom that was now her responsibility, and felt… not quite nothing, but something very close to it. It was like a hole had been punched in her heart, not unlike a hole punched in an ice cream punch card, that could never possibly be filled again. Dust—dust as far as the eye could see, though in less than equal measures there were monsters to clean up what had once been their friends, their neighbors, their families. Some of those included monsters who were… at the same time less and more than their former selves.

Once, she had been terrified that the people would find out what she had done to those who had fallen down. Now, there had passed through a land a human storm so devastating that her sins were paltry by comparison. The monsters had even treated her like a savior. It was almost a blessing.

But mostly it was a curse.

Every so often, people would look up from their gruesome cleaning jobs at her and smile and wave. Alphys smiled weakly and waved back, but for that moment, the hole in her heart warmed with affection. They had faith in her. They had _hope_. No matter how much of their world had been ruined for them, no matter how much had been broken, no matter that they were almost certainly doomed, they were still willing to pick up and carry on again. It gave her hope in turn. She needed hope. The one person, the most beautiful monster, who had lifted her spirits… she’d lost her too.

That was what everyone had in common, these days. Everyone had lost someone. Everyone understood how everyone else felt. So no matter how anyone felt about anyone else in the past, here in the present, they chose kindness for themselves and one another. This is what her people’s SOULs were made of. No matter what else gnawed at Alphys’s heart, pride and affection for them surged inside her. Is this how Asgore felt, back when he was alive?

God, she missed him. She missed everyone so, so much.

A light shuffle of fabric whispered at her back. She turned her head to see Sans leaning on the doorway to the balcony. Technically “doorway” meant “hole in the side of New Home” and “balcony” meant “a few boards of scrap wood from the dump that Alphys had had nailed up,” but it was there and he was leaning on it. He hadn’t been there a moment ago. She didn’t comment on it. They both knew better than that by now.

“Hi,” he said.

“H-hi,” she said back.

“Congrats on the coronation.”

She drew her arms close to her chest and bowed her head. “Don’t be s-so mean-spirited.”

“…Sorry.”

“N-no, I’m— _I’m_ sorry.” Nervous laughter bubbled out of her like an unintended belch. “I’m still not used to… all of this. Any of this. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, b-but still...”

“Yeah, before, uh, everything, you wouldn’t even’ve imagined standing in front of a… hm. Not a _big_ crowd anymore… a medium crowd? A smallish-to-somewhat-less-than-medium crowd?”

She forced another feeble laugh. “At least we don’t have t-to worry about overcrowding anymore, huh?”

“Hah,” Sans barked. “Yeah. No kidding.”

She heaved a sigh thick with a promise of tears to come. But later. “Thank g-god the human’s gone now. Maybe… maybe we can at least come together, after what they did.”

“…Yeah.”

She peeked over her shoulder again. Sans was looking away. Even without seeing that, though, there’d been a quality to his one-word response that was perfectly, Sansishly evasive. _Evasive_ was probably the single most crucial keyword to Sans as a monster being, granted, but this was even more so than usual. Realization dawned on a dusty field of horror.

“You don’t think… they’d come back…?” she whispered, clutching her claws. “Not after all the trouble they went to to pass through the Barrier?”

“Not in this lifetime, at least.”

Alphys considered that response. More Sans evasiveness. Monsters lived far longer than humans did—was that what he meant? Her claws clacked as her feet shuffled. There was something… something at the back of her mind, if she could only just…

“That reminds me of s-some research I did once… I think.”

“…Oh?”

“I think,” she stressed. “It’s all sort of a… a haze. A blur. A hazy blur. M-maybe it’s all the… stress and trauma. Blocking the memories, you know. It’s just—a f-feeling I have.”

“…Yeah. Yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me. The days just kinda blur together for me, too, now. Heh, couldn’t tell ya what day of the week it is, even. Everything feels like it happened so long ago, y’know? Like it’s been… years.”

“Yeah,” she murmured. Even though it hadn’t even been a week. Or she was pretty sure it hadn’t. “Um… Y’know… A-about Papyrus...”

Sans didn’t speak, but the air around the two of them gained a sudden, frosty tension. In the past, Alphys would have dissolved into a babbling mess as she backpedaled out of their all the way to Old Home. Now that the weight of all her new responsibilities had settled onto her shoulders, she took a deep breath and stood a little taller.

“…If you want, we could make… a little memorial for him,” she continued. Taller, but still awkward. “N-nothing… flashy, if you don’t want. Just… a few memorials. F-for him, a-and… a-and everyone else who died. I m-mean… I wouldn’t be ruling the Underground if there were literally anyone else who was qualified, y-you know? I th-think… we ought to honor the f-folks who… who should be here.”

Another frozen block of silence. But, degree by degree, it began to thaw. “…Yeah. Yeah, I think… Papyrus woulda liked that,” he murmured. “He always… wanted lots’ve friends. Lots’ve attention. Not like this, but… it’s better than being forgotten.”

“Y-yeah.” Alphys let out a silent sigh of relief. “There’s… there’s always the memories. We’ll always have those.”

“…Yeah.”

And now a certain subtle sadness. Like there was something he knew that she didn’t. ...Had she forgotten something? But… she wracked her brains. Was it about that research she’d mentioned? She couldn’t even remember what the research was about. She couldn’t remember even _doing_ the research. She just… had a feeling that there was research, that had been conducted, at one point. That it had been very important.

“Sorry,” she added.

“For what?”

“For… forgetting.”

Another silence. This one, though, had the feel of a long and winding river, maybe formed after all that ice-thawing. “It’s… not your fault. Technically speaking, I can’t remember either.”

“Huh?”

“So what about Undyne?” he said then. Silently, she cursed. She knew perfectly well he was changing the subject, but it was a subject she couldn’t ignore. He did this _all the time_ and it _always worked_ , damn him. “You’re making a memorial for her too, right?”

“Y-yeah, of course,” she said, heated. “And Asgore, and Mettaton, and… Her late Highness. Wherever she might be. B-but… I’m sure it’s not… here.” She gestured vaguely. “I-I’m sure if the Queen were still around, none of this would’ve happened. But anyway… Undyne worked so hard to try to p-protect us… protect us all. I m-mean, everyone did, in their own way, I think. So… y-yeah. Of course.”

“Of course,” he echoed, like a flower.

A flower… That tickled something in her memory too. This recollection was clearer. The golden flowers that she’d experimented on with the late Prince’s ashes… She shivered. She never had found out where it’d disappeared to, though based on some things she’d seen on her many, many monitors, she had a bad feeling she could guess. She wondered where it was now. Maybe watching from somewhere close by. She took a close look all around the cavern around Old Home, but… no sign of any flowers, yellow or otherwise. But it made her think of something else.

“You know, at first, I honestly th-thought I could be friends with the human,” she croaked, rubbing her face. “Even though… even though I saw how many m-monsters they killed. How they d-didn’t even seem to c-care.”

Sans said nothing.

“And then… when I realized that they weren’t… g-going to stop killing… I w-went numb. I thought… m-maybe it’d be best if I just—stayed where I was. L-let them kill me too. I d-deserved it.”

Nothing. But that was strangely comforting. It was a sight better than false reassurance.

“Undyne called me before the… the end,” she added, squeezing her claws together. “The human was headed my way, and she was so scared, so desperate… f-for everyone, of course, but also… f-for me. I f-fell in love all over again.” Alphys half-laughed, half-sobbed. “I knew I had t-to be a better person. For her. That if… if she couldn’t… if she couldn’t stop them…”

She faltered. Something, not quite a memory, not quite a vision, flickered in her mind like an ancient film reel.

 _Undyne staggers into her lab, using one of her spears as a support. Her armor has completely transformed, thanks to the hopes and dreams of all the monsters whose hearts had beaten in time with hers. She should be dead, she should be dying, but she’s not and she never will. She_ has _taken heavy damage, but the battering she’s taken at the ballet-toed feet of the human is nothing compared to their blood, still splattered on her._

_Alphys rushes over to her, and despite her injuries, Undyne lets her spear clatter to the floor so she can scoop Alphys up into her arms._

_“I did it,” she croaks, holding her close. “I saved the world. That damn human won’t hurt anyone else anymore.”_

_“Oh, thank god,” Alphys sobs, tears fogging her glasses as she hugs her with all her diminutive strength. “Undyne, I’m so—I’m so—if I’d only just—”_

_“Cut that out!” Undyne barks, holding her out all of a sudden. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to ya, Alphys. Something I’ve wanted to say for a long time!”_

_She freezes, fear chilling her to the bone. “Wh-what… what’s that…?”_

_And then Undyne kisses her, kisses her square on the mouth, and her passion sears away the cold in a blazing instant. When she pulls away a moment later, no more than an inch or so, she whispers roughly, “I love you.”_

_And Alphys sobs again, but this time with relief, this time with joy, and she throws her arms around Undyne’s neck and in turn says_

Nothing. Just a bit of static, and then… it’s like someone turned the lights out on the world.

And it couldn’t be real, couldn’t possibly, the human had killed Undyne like they’d killed everyone else except a handful of monsters in Hotland (lucky 01 and 02, though Alphys would never understand why they hadchosen to spare the two guards; love in bloom had never stopped them before), and yet it _felt_ real, more real than anything in her life right now.

So real, even though it had never happened. Like the ghost of another life, another possibility, come to haunt her with regret.

Disturbed, Alphys shook her head, a shivery sensation like a million spiders crawling over her scales. “Wh-what was...”

“You okay, Al?”

She turned again to Sans, who watched her close with eye ridges furrowed in concern. His smile, of course, was as broad as ever, though that didn’t mean he was laughing at her. She understood that about him. They both understood a lot about each other than no one else did.

“No,” she croaked, forcing a smile back.

Sans nodded. Yes, he understood. “Same.”

She half-laughed, half-sobbed, and this time it was actually sincere. “Th-thanks.”

“Hey, what’re friends for?”

Friends. Friends, plural. Alphys ached. There was only Sans, now. And she was grateful for that, eternally grateful, though not to the damned human, but—but it was just—

Watching her silent tears, Sans cleared his throat. “…You know. I, uh. I might have the human’s phone number around, somewhere. If you wanted to give ‘em a piece of your mind. I could hook you up.”

She blinked over at him. “R-really?”

“Would I lie?”

She snorted and laughed despite herself. Despite everything. “No, you’d just sidestep the issue, like you always do.”

“Heh heh. Who says comedy’s dead?” He paused. Then his perpetual grin took on a melancholic air. “Seriously, though.”

“I… I’d like that. I doubt they’d care, but… yeah. I don’t think I’ll feel satisfied until I get some things off my chest.”

He nodded. She turned back away. That was a joke, too. Pride or no pride, she’d probably never feel satisfied with herself. But that was normal, for her.

Heaving another sigh, she rubbed her face and shuffled back inside. There was still a lot to do. So much to do. She couldn’t just stand around watching anymore. She needed hope. Everyone did.

Next to her friend, though, she stopped. There was one more thought itching at her, demanding to be voiced.

“Do you ever…” She hesitated, then blurted out, “D’you ever wish you could turn back time? Do things over right?”

At first, it seemed like Sans wasn’t going to answer that one; he stared into space as if he hadn’t heard her at all. But then, finally, he focused on her.“What if you could, Al? What if you could, but you didn’t remember anything from the last time around? What would you do then?”

“What?” She blinked at him, then lowered her gaze to the floor and curled her tail around her legs. If… if she could go back in time to when the human had just showed up, but she didn’t remember any of what happened… she… “That’d be totally useless,” she murmured. “The old me… wouldn’t have done a thing. N-not until it was too late.” She sighed, shoulders sagging. “I guess that’s my answer, huh. I know; it’s useless to think of what-ifs. Ha, you’re so wise, Sans.”

He chuckled humorlessly.

“B-but I still…” She trailed off; then she mumbled, “I still can’t help thinking… and maybe I ought to say this to them outright… I really should’ve killed them when I had the chance.”

“…Yeah.” Sans stepped over to her, rested a bony hand on her shoulder. “Hard same.”


End file.
